Billie Jean King just couldn’t stay away. After losing the Nashville final to Margaret Court, she told Margaret that she would sit out the next two weeks. A couple days later, there she was, prepping for another tournament, another first-round match.
King was the face of the Virginia Slims tour, now more than ever. She was both the reigning Wimbledon champ and the next woman to challenge 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. What was she going to do, stay home and do interviews? She could leave that to Bobby, and after all, the press would come to her.
Fatigued or not, Billie Jean breezed through the start of a new week, disposing of French veteran Françoise Dürr in her opening match. Dürr could be dangerous on clay–the pair had gone three sets on dirt in Nashville–but indoors at the Allaire Racquet Club in Wall Township, New Jersey, King had the edge. She lost just five games.
But on August 16th, warming up for her second-rounder against Joy Schwikert, King slipped as she chased down a ball. The verdict: a strained ligament. She was out of the tournament.
“It’s a shame for the tournament and the spectators that Billie Jean and Kerry [Melville] are out,” said Court. Melville had taken a spill, as well. Margaret didn’t seem to mind too much on her own account: She had won 11 of 14 Slims trophies in 1973, and King’s exit made it a near-certainty she’d pick up a 12th.
Kerry Harris, who reached the quarter-finals by outlasting sixth-seeded Val Ziegenfuss, took a different view. “It’s always great seeing new people getting opportunities,” she said, “and that’s what happening here.”
Most fans didn’t care about the Jersey Shore Classic. But King’s injury didn’t bode well for the September 20th Battle of the Sexes match, an event that loomed even larger than the upcoming US Open. Millions of dollars were now riding–indirectly, anyway–on Billie Jean’s knee.
As if King didn’t already know how much was at stake, another story ran the morning after her injury. Ticket prices were set for the Riggs match. The best seats at the Houston Astrodome would cost a cool $100–the equivalent of $700 today. Penny-pinchers could get in for six bucks, but from the upper tier of a 40,000-seat stadium, they might wonder why they hadn’t stayed home and watched the match on TV.
Billie Jean left the worrying to the promoters. She wasn’t one to rest and recuperate one minute more than necessary. There was a tournament next week in Newport, and Madame Superstar planned to be there.
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This post is part of my series about the 1973 season, Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts. Keep up with the project by checking the TennisAbstract.com front page, which shows an up-to-date Table of Contents after I post each installment.
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